If
people can see non-existent airplanes certainly this contains a potential
explanation why people also can see non-existent UFO’s isn’t it ? It
is a matter of historical record that although no German air bomber
ever flew over Canada during World War I, many people indeed saw
them. For example on February 14,1915, the biggest air-raid scare
of the war occurred when German planes were "detected" crossing the New
York state border in the direction of Ottawa. As word of the sightings
spread, Parliament Hill was blacked out, and marksmen were deployed to
counter the expected attack. (National Archives of Canada RD 254)

The sightings
became intensified the following morning, when the Toronto Globe implied
that an attack had actually happened. Its banner, front-page headlines
stated: "Ottawa in Darkness Awaits Aeroplane Raid. Several Aeroplanes Make
a Raid into the Dominion of Canada. Entire City of Ottawa in Darkness,
Fearing Bomb-Droppers. Machines Crossed St. Lawrence River ... Seen by
Many Citizens Heading for the Capital - One Was Equipped with Powerful
Searchlights- Fire Balls Dropped.” On the American side, the New York
Times description of the incident the next morning was much more cautious,
with its headlines stating in part, "Scare in Ottawa Over Air Raid ...
but Police Chief's Report Is Vague." The Times also noted that the police
chief in Ogdensburg, New York, just twelve miles down the St. Lawrence
River from Brockville, stated that no one had reported seeing or hearing
anything at the time the airplanes were said to have passed near Brockville.
In addition, flying machines were also sighted at Gananoque, Ontario. Other
observations of unusual aerial objects were redefined. For instance, once
the news of the sightings spread, an Ogdensburg farmer told police that
he had seen an airplane on February 12 flying toward Canada.

One press account
stated, "the fact that the country is at war and the Germans and pro-Germans
abound across the border renders it quite within the bounds of possibility,
if not probability, that such a raid might occur.

On the night
of February 15 and the early morning hours of February 16, the Parliament
buildings again remained dark, and marksmen were posted at strategic locations.
This appears to have been both a precautionary and a face-saving measure.
Information was rapidly coming to hand indicating that a series of toy
balloons mistaken for enemy airplanes, had been sent aloft the previous
night on the American side. Prime Minister Borden was defensive. When asked
for information about the "invasion," he replied that when informed of
the reports, he had left the matter to the judgment of the chief of staff
and chief of Dominion Police.

The Canadian
press, such as the Toronto Globe, was also embarrassed, as it had reported
the aerial incursion as a certainty in its previous edition. However, in
the paper's next edition, it blamed the affair on "hysterical" residents
in Brockville. Meanwhile, the charred remains of two large toy balloons
7 had been found in the vicinity of Brockville. Local residents blamed
the balloons on boys from nearby Morristown. A number of toy balloons in
other locations had also been sent aloft by Americans on February 14 and
15, in commemoration of the centenary of peace. An adviser for the Canadian
Aviation Corps, J.D. McCurdy, stated that a mission by German sympathizers
from northern New York was highly improbable, especially given the difficulty
of night flying.

In the first
week of the month, an airplane reportedly landed in a field near Nolan
Junction, Quebec. It was claimed that two men carrying plans and papers
disembarked, then shortly after flew off toward Montreal. 11 On July 16,
an illuminated airplane was seen by blacksmith Silvanus Edworthy in London.
On the morning of July 17, a craft was seen near Massena, Ontario. During
mid-July, airplanes were widely reported flying in the vicinity of Quebec
City and Montreal. When aircraft were seen near a factory in Rigaud, the
lights were extinguished and precautions "taken to protect the place from
possible attack." On the night July 18, a military guard at the Point Edward
wireless station fired five shots at what he took to be airplanes, and
two large paper balloons plummeted to earth.

At 11 P.M. on
July 20, when a mysterious aircraft was sighted by several citizens of
Chateauguay near Montreal, speculation was rife that a German resident
of that town for the past five years had secretly flown across the border
to the United States. The man had been closely watched since the outbreak
of hostilities, and he disappeared the night the plane was sighted.

Widely scattered
nocturnal airplane sightings continued, including sightings at Tillsongburg
on July 22 and London on August 8, 1915. On February 5, 1916, a railway
worker spotted two airplanes near Montreal. There was thought to be a connection
between this sighting and a suspicious man who was seen at about the same
time under the Victoria Bridge. Fearing an attempt to blow up the bridge,
guards on the structure opened fire on the figure, who fled. On February
13, a rare configuration of Venus and Jupiter resulted in a brilliant light
in the western sky that was mistaken by hundreds of residents of London
as an airplane about to attack. 22 Finally, the last known scare during
the war occurred at Windsor, when a biplane was sighted by hundreds of
anxious residents for about thirty minutes on July 6, 1916. Several people
using binoculars actually claimed "to distinguish the figure of the aviator."

There have been
many other occurrences like this before and after, however let us take
another example next that indeed comes even closer to the sightings of
UFO’s, during the 19th century.

No less than
some of the largest UFO sightings during the 20th century, hundreds of
witnesses in Sacramento, California, on November 17, ‘saw’ a
non-existent Airship. One typical press report began as follows: "A vast
amount of excitement was created among residents in the outskirts of the
city tonight by the appearance of what they claim to have been an airship"
(The San Francisco Call, November 18, 1896, p. 3). Ten days later, as the
sightings continued, the same newspaper reported, "The subject of the airship
and lights seen by the people of half a dozen counties has not lost any
of the interest in the public mind" (The Call, November 27, 1896, p. 14).

As the sightings
spread across the rest of the country between January and May 1897, considerable
excitement was also in evidence. In Nebraska, it was reported that "Kearney
is the latest town that is involved in the throes of excitement over the
mysterious light" (York Daily Times, February 23, 1897, p. 3). When a strange
light was spotted near Mansfield, Texas, the Dallas Morning News of April
18 published a report by a telegraph operator who wrote, "Great excitement
prevails here." On the evening of April 12, the residents of Jewell, Iowa,
"were greatly excited ... by the appearance of the so-called airship" (Iowa
State Register, April 14, 1897, p. 5), while in Cedar Rapids, another airship
report caused "consid­erable excitement" (Waterloo Daily Courier, April
14, 1897, p. 14). After the craft was rumored to have floated over Cripple
Creek, Colorado, the community was described as "wildly excited over the
affair, and it is the general talk" (Denver Times, April 19, 1897, p. 1).
When the vessel was sighted in West Virginia, it was reported that "the
mysterious air ship seems to be the all-absorbing topic at present" (Parkersburg
Sentinel, April 21, 1897, p. 1).

Following the
image of an airship with birdlike “wings” reported by California residents
in November 1896. (San Francisco Call, November 23, 1896, p. 1.)

An alien spaceship
crashes to Earth, killing its occupants. Roswell, New Mexico, 1947? No,
a remote Indian Ocean island, 1862. Another ship plunges from the sky above
a small town in the southwestern United States, extinguishing the life
of its extraterrestrial pilot. Roswell? No, Aurora, Texas, 1897.

But even many
authority figures such as police officers, politicians, and prominent business
people were cited as airship believers. Groups of witnesses in communities
across the country commonly signed or offered to sign affidavits to this
effect. In Cincinnati, Ohio, police officer John Ringer saw a mysterious
aerial light and stated emphatically, "I believe it was the airship" (Toledo
Evening Blade, April 30, 1897, p. 2). In Farmersville, Texas, the city
marshal spotted the mysterious vessel and claimed to discern the figures
of two men inside (Austin Daily Statesman, April 19, 1897, p. 7). One witness
was the mayor of Hermann, Missouri (Herman Advertiser-Courier, April 21,1897,
p. 3). Among a large number of citizens who report edly observed the vessel
in Albert Lea, Minnesota, was "ex-mayor Gillrup" (St. Paul Pioneer Press,
April 12, 1897, p. 4.). When Russellville, Kentucky, residents observed
the airship "plainly and distinctly," witnesses included Mayor Andrews
and prominent merchant James McCutchens (Louisville Evening Post, April
16, 1897, p. 5). Among several prominent citizens who observed the airship
at Storm Lake, Iowa, was Justice Lot Thomas and his wife (Evening Times-Republican,
April 9, 1897, p. 9). Some people even organized themselves to watch for
the vessel. For instance, in Belton, Texas, a crowd of respected citizens
"assembled for the purpose of watching for that much-talked-of airship"
(Houston Post, April 22, 1897, p. 9).

History is a
valuable tool because it distances observers from events, allowing
for a less emotional, more contextual perspective in evaluating incredible
claims. For instance, between 1900 and 1950, humanlike aliens typically
landed in saucers with protruding exhaust pipes and clumsy disembarking
ladders, wore Buck Rogers-style space suits, carried pistol ray guns, and
usually hailed from Mars. This caricature is laughable in comparison to
present-day aliens, who have large heads and bulbous eyes, float from their
ship, and can communicate telepathically. The same comparative historical
approach can be applied fruit fully to crashed-saucer claims to show that
they are part of a broader myth.

In a letter
to the Houston Post of May 2, 1897, John Leander wrote that an elderly
sailor from El Campo, Texas- identified only as "Mr. Oleson"-claimed to
have been shipwrecked on a tiny, uncharted Indian Ocean island in 1862.
He said that during his ordeal, an immense airship sporting gigantic wings
crashed into a rock cliff. Inside were the bodies of twelve-foot-tall creatures
with dark, bronze skin: "Their hair and beard were also long and as soft
and silky as the hair of an infant." The surviving sailors lived inside
the wrecked airship and eventually "summoned courage to drag the gigantic
bodies to the cliff and tumble them over." After building a raft and being
rescued by a passing Russian vessel, Oleson retained a ring from the thumb
of one of the creatures as the only proof of the events. Two and one-quarter
inches in diameter, it was "made of a compound of metals unknown to any
jeweler ... and [was] set with two reddish stones." As luck would have
it, by the time the vessel reached port, the remaining airship sailors
died, leaving Oleson as the sole survivor.

This story bears
an uncanny resemblance to Roswell. The account is a secondhand narrative
6f alien creatures in a space vessel crashing in a remote location. The
craft was destroyed, and foreign writing was found inside. The alien bodies
were disposed of and the debris lost. A piece of confirming evidence was
retained (in the form of an immense ring with unknown properties), but
the witness failed to allow public scrutiny. It is important to remember
that our interest in such accounts is in their narrative content and not
in their truth or falsity per se.

During a wave
of phantom-airship sightings in the United States between 1896 and 1897,
there were several crashed-UFO claims. On the night of December 3, 1896,
a wrecked airship was found in the gully of a cow pasture in a San Francisco
suburb after dairy farmers heard a loud bang followed by cries for help.
Rushing to the scene, they found two dazed occupants staggering near a
forty-foot-long, cone-shaped tube of galva­nized iron with broken wings
and propellers. After causing a local sensa­tion, and under questioning
by those inspecting the "wreckage," the alleged pilot, J.D. deGear, confessed
that the "ship" had been pulled to the hilltop on a wagon and pushed over
. The spot was chosen for its proximity to a nearby saloon, which enjoyed
a brisk business during the spectacle.'

On the night
of April 4, 1897, an airship supposedly crashed on the J.D. Sims farm near
Bethany, Missouri, killing its pilot.' Within a week, a flying machine
reportedly plunged into a reservoir near Rhodes, Iowa.' No debris was ever
found. On April 16, another vessel allegedly crash-landed outside Waterloo,
Iowa . In Tennessee, it was rumored that a craft had plunged to Earth
in the middle of the night, sinking without a trace into the Sycamore Creek.'

Finally, there
was the Aurora, Texas, hoax. A craft carrying what appeared to be a Martian
allegedly crashed there, and its pilot was sup­posedly buried nearby.'
In UFOs - Explained, the former senior editor of the respected publication
Aviation Week and Space Technology, Philip J. Klass, demonstrated that
this was undoubtedly a hoax. Yet scores of UFO researchers have traveled
and continue to travel to the community of Aurora, armed with cameras,
Geiger counters, metal detectors, pickaxes, and shovels in hopes of locating
the purported grave of the unfortunate alien.

It is also notable
that there were theories of government cover-ups during the airship wave.
The Galveston Daily News of April 29, 1897, argued that airship reports
were secret U.S. government experiments, noting that "A profound secrecy
has been maintained as to what has been accom­plished, even army officers
themselves only getting vague inklings of what is going on."" There were
also claims of airships being constructed and hidden in U.S. military installations,
including Fort Sheridan near Chicago and Fort Logan in Colorado."

Pre-Roswell
crashed-UFO claims have also occurred outside the United States. In 1909,
a wave of phantom-zeppelin sightings spread across New Zealand amid rumors
that Germany was planning an aerial attack. Within this context, a zeppelin
reportedly crashed at Waikaka, killing those on board.12 In Scandinavia
during the 1930s, mysterious "ghost aeroplanes" were frequently spotted.
On February 5, 1933, several Norwegians became convinced that the "ghost
flier" had crashed into Mount Fagar. A police search party revealed nothing."
During World War II, the British gov­ernment was reported to have captured
a crashed saucer and tiny aliens." In 1946, dozens of UFOs reportedly crashed
in Scandinavia after rumors that the Soviets were test-firing V-rockets.
No confirming evidence was ever found despite intense military investigations."

Thus if there
is any mystery surrounding accounts of crashed UFOs, its solution lies
not in examining some secret military hangar but in examining the human
mind. We need to ask ourselves, what makes this myth so appealing? Folklorist
Jan Brunvand contends that for legends to persist in modern society "as
living narrative folklore," they must contain three key elements: "a strong
basic story appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message
or 'moral."

Accounts
of crashed saucers and government cover-ups easily meet each of these criteria.
They make for fascinating reading and discussion. They are rendered plausible
in the many dubious books, pseudoscientific "docudramas," and speculative
movies that suggest their existence. These narratives contain a poignant
message about a secular age that has used science and reason to expel gods,
ghosts, and demons from our minds. These haunting images have been replaced
with more plausible contemporary themes: a world of government mistrust,
nefarious conspiracies, and alien abductors. Ironically, as scientists
delve deeper into the mysteries of our universe, they generate more questions.
New scientific discoveries continue to reveal a world that is every bit
as fascinating as that any pseudoscientist could imagine.

One could argue
however that preferable to the seductive, idealized social world of religion,
wish manias, and pseudoscience, a similar degree of psychological satisfaction
and fulfillment can be obtained by adhering to a philosophical outlook
that includes basic principles of logic and reason that have contributed
to progress for humanity.